1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lighting assembly, and particularly, to a lighting assembly for directing light downward onto a surface below where the assembly is mounted.
2. Description of the Related Art
Address numbers, such as those commonly used to indicate the number of a house or building, are typically mounted on the outside of the building and are often difficult to see at night. One particular device with a purpose to illuminate house numbers is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,172. However, this device is a fully self-contained unit adapted for mounting specific types of numbers on the unit and thus cannot be used with existing house numbers. Further, the unit is bulky and unpleasing to the eye and leaves the buyer no option to account for personal taste and aesthetics.
Other devices designed with the purpose of providing illumination outside a house or building include path markers and landscape lights as shown in U.S. Pat No. 5,211,470, U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,984 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,120. However, these devices are adapted for illuminating walkways and landscaping and do not provide the capability to be mounted on a surface above existing house numbers to illuminate the numbers.
Applicant's invention is designed specifically to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art by providing for the longstanding need of an aesthetically pleasing lighting assembly which is adapted to be mounted above the surface to be illuminated, allowing the user to choose any type of address numbers, and is capable of providing it's own power.